Retro Reviews: Roller Coaster Tycoon 2

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, is the second installment of the highly successful franchise of Roller Coaster Tycoon made by game developer Chris Sawyer. The second game is similar as the first installment except it adds more characters and scenarios.

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Roller Coaster Tycoon 2: Fun, Coasters and You

Truly the last great game of the series is Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. It has all the elements of the first installment, but it perfected the formula exposed in the first video game; but we can’t say the same of the third installment, yes it is fun and interesting to play, but it doesn't have the magic and charm of the first two games of the series.

The gameplay of Tycoon 2 is the same as Roller Coaster Tycoon 1, there is no differences at all. The player will be the administrator and developer of theme parks. In those terms you won’t see any differences between the two games, except that now the player has the opportunity to add more things to his park such as ATM machines, the structures of the rides are more robust and more realistically in architectural terms, the creation of buildings, the use of SHIFT key to improve the elevation of the rides and many more such items. THe game added more things that you can explore during the development of the stages.

The graphics are extremely similar as the first game, there are minor differences such as colors and an improve in the structures of the park, but beyond those two enhancement there are no differences with the first game. You will see the same type of visitors walking the parks and the same textures with the environment. You can’t expect too much about the graphic details of the game as they don’t give a sense of improvement at all, and when you are playing it, is like a revision of the first game.

For the rides aspect of the game there isn’t many new ones; the jet skis are one of the ones in the game and for the stalls one of the new ones is the sausage stall. We can see that some of the old rides were renamed as Scramble Eggs is called Twister and some of the coasters are also. That change made some players confused about the rides at first; I mean, is not a good idea to change the name of a product if the product is well positioned, because the customers will not know if it’s the same product that was exposed at first without the proper campaign to announce the change. It is a basic rule in the marking world. And yet while investigating I saw that with the sequel the Chris Sawyer team didn’t announce those changes.

The music is probably the only aspect that differs from the first game and it sounds more mature and more realistically similar as when you are going to Disney. You feel the cheery music around the park. That was the biggest achievement on this game, the improvement on the musical score.

For conclusion, Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 is a great sequel even if it didn’t show a major change on the gameplay. It keeps the charm that was absent on the second sequel and it is so fun to explore the expanded world of Roller Coaster Tycoon. If you want to buy the game, you can click here; the price is really low and it includes both expansion packs that were sold separately.